Six
by eclecticmimicry
Summary: The past half-year takes its toll on those who hide how they feel. Even those who profess to be different. Takeru x Chiaki.


**Wow, my first published story in years...**

**Okay, to start off - I own nothing. The idea of Takeru and Chiaki just popped up in my yaoi-addled brain. Second - I'm taking a few creative liberties here, so I hope no one flames me too much for it.**

**Anywho, pairings are (naturally) Takeru x Chiaki, mentions of Mako x Ryuu and Genta x Kotoha.**

**Six**

* * *

For Shiba Takeru, a house full of people had never been a problem before. At least, not those that didn't make their presence known. Jii and the Kuroko had always been rather unobtrusive, but with the sudden surge in Gedoushuu activity - they'd been forced to summon the rest of the Shinkengers.

Now, Takeru had no particular care for having vassals - mostly because he was worried by the danger he was putting otherwise normal youths in. When his vassals arrived, it took him a while to process it all...

'_Ryuunosuke - the overly respectful but utterly loyal one; Kotoha, the youngest and didn't really seem like she should be fighting; Mako - the sisterly and otherwise very sweet woman with a lack of knack in the kitchen; and Chiaki - the brown-haired teenager with the most adorable scowl and the softest hands that had ever touched his shoulders...? Now where did that come from..._'

He thought, familiarizing himself - and inadvertedly describing the youngest male samurai in a different light, though he dismissed it as something random.

Weeks rolled by and he began to see more of his vassals - their dreams - their shortcomings...

'_Chiaki's being too hard on himself... And I just want to protect him... He's important to me..._'

This after Chiaki had stormed out on them, declaring that he'd never wanted any of this in the first place when Takeru told him that he could leave if he wasn't serious.

'_Good, surpass me. I don't want to see you get hurt... Not ever..._'

Again after Chiaki seemed to have a fire lit from under him - spurring him on to surpass Takeru's own power.

'_I knew you could do it... YOu just needed to apply yourself more..._'

Once more after Chiaki finally mastered the Kabuto Origami...

By this time, it preturbed him just a little bit that he was looking at Chiaki a lot. Noticing the tiniest details to the brunette's actions. The wild imagination - the sheer guts it took for him to call Takeru without honorifics, and the gall to make fun of Jii... He was funny... It wasn't long before Takeru's irritation turned into hidden laughter. But he didn't show it. He couldn't - shouldn't.

Being raised as the generational head of a family didn't really give him time to think about liking someone above the friendship level, plus he had four people - four very different people - in his home. It was a lot to get used to, and even longer before he opened up to any of them.

Before long he found himself always, ALWAYS within reach of the Kuma Origami's holder. Some electric force always shot up his hand whenever Chiaki plopped down next to him while talking about something, the way his eyes shone when plotting something with Genta...

'_I think... I might be in love..._' Takeru realized, six months later.

Six months of fighting, of getting banged up and bandaged to fight again. Six months of noticing how much the younger male improved. Six months of pining for his affection without noticing the slightest.

In a moment of stupidity, of loneliness - Takeru went and fought Juzo, a stray Gedou swordsman. He would win or die trying - not that he cared. It was getting to be too much, all the fighting and the hiding the way he felt. He lay broken but victorious afterward. In the times after, he would not be so lucky.

After Akumaro arrived, the battles got tougher, and the pressure was mounting. His hidden feelings for Chiaki were there but buried. At one point, he could no longer resist - Chiaki was right in harm's way, in front of him... He reached out and asked if Chiaki was all right, his hand on ShinkenGreen's shoulder, threatening to pull him out of the way if anything was wrong.

'_Chiaki..._' He muttered the name in his head over and over like a mantra. '_Chiaki..._'

This time, he was beaten so badly that it was affecting everyone. As he lay broken, his mind wandered to thoughts of Chiaki, sitting nearby in the darkness - his voice barely a whisper.

"Takeru... Don't die. I can't... I don't want to think about life without you. All this time, I wanted you to notice me... Wanted you to see that I could stand by you no matter what..."

In his pain induced delirium, he could almost swear he could smell Chiaki as well - a citrus-y, woods-y scent that permeated his mind and sent all sorts of warm, fuzzy feelings throughout his body. Takeru didn't want to open his eyes for fear of waking up alone. Or at least, he thought he was... Until the a wet sob escaped dream-Chiaki and a tear fell on his cheek.

"T-Takeru..." Chiaki sobbed.

* * *

From the first day he met the 18th Head of the Shiba Clan, Tani Chiaki was infuriated. The older male was tall, onyx-eyed, ebony-haired and too mysterious for his own good. The fact that he wasn't that much older than Chiaki wasn't lost on him either.

'_Che... Why can't he act normal... I know he's supposed to be all Lordly and stuff, but would it kill him to smile?!_'

The irritation gave way to curiosity in the next few weeks, and Chiaki, always having taken the road less favored by those so serious in life - took to playing a few hundred pranks. And expressedly refused to call Takeru anything more than just 'Takeru', even when Hikoma-jii threatened to box his ears.

'_Damn you Shiba Takeru. I'm just as good as any of you and you think just 'cause I play around I'm not serious?! FINE. I'm gone._'

In his anger, in his sheer foolishness, his friends got hurt. Chiaki realized then that Takeru had never meant for him to leave.

'_I'll show you. I'll show you just how serious I can be. And then you'll see me..._'

Connecting with his Mojikara - Wood - just to really connect with the Kabuto Origami, was murder. It nearly killed him, but it paid off.

'_Hahah! Y'see that Takeru? I did it!_'

He wonders if Takeru sees him now. That he can be as strong - if not stronger that Takeru...

'_So that you'll never have to get hurt..._'

Chiaki wasn't slow, he knew that there was something in him that felt differently for Takeru. But it wasn't his place - a vassal in love with his Lord... It really was laughable. But Mako could see it, and she talked to Chiaki about it.

"Listen to your Nee-san" She said, like a doting elder sister. "Tell him how you feel..."

She, on the other hand, was one to talk. She liked Ryuunoske and was too much of a scaredy cat to say a thing.

In the months that followed, Chiaki had hoped that Takeru would respond to his antics - and to the fact that he was always in Takeru's face. But nothing. He noticed Takeru was distracted, eventually laying off most of his regular antics - at least until Takeru got a case of the stupid and went after Juzo.

Chiaki had been beside himself, worried for the older boy, hurt as he was - Takeru managed to win, and things went back to normal for a time... He spent most of his time with Genta - Gen-chan, someone who knew Takeru well enough whom he could weasel information out of.

'_Gen-chan, you'll help me, right?_' He thought to himself.

Genta, as it turned out, volunteered information on 'Take-chan' quite nicely.

"He hates the rain. Especially loud storms with thunder and lightning. Doesn't like chicken as much as you might think..."

Genta, who took to Kotoha like a moth to a flame - giving her whatever she wanted... Including Curry. He always thanked Gen-chan for the free food that came with the skinny on Takeru's likes, dislikes and other things.

But that one fight - the one he knew they wouldn't come out of unscathed - one where he and Gen-chan faced each other down like a couple of paranoid wolves. Oh god, he had never seen Takeru so beaten up. Bloodied, bruised, cut in so many places it was gruesome.

It was taking everything Chiaki had not to run straight to Takeru's bedroom and just lie next to him, confessing his love like nothing else mattered. But that's what he had done in the middle of the night, as Takeru was in pain.

The kuroko-chan had done all they can for the young Lord. It would be up to him to heal at this point. So in the dead of night, as the others slept - Chiaki snuck into Takeru's room. It took mere seconds for him to cry, releasing all the pent up sadness and anger inside him.

Anger at himself for not being stronger.

Sadness for six months and not letting Takeru know he loved him.

Anger at the Gedoushuu.

Sadness for how he couldn't protect Takeru.

Anger for not being able to protect Takeru at that moment.

Sadness... Just sadness... and pain and sorrow...

"T-this is the worst I've seen you hurt..." He sobbed.

"Oh god, Takeru... I'm so sorry... But I can't... I-I can't bear to see you like this. I tried to protect you..."

His head hovered near Takeru's and a tear fell upon the raven-haired male's face.

"T-takeru... I love you... Don't leave me... Please... I don't know if I can fight without you. Do you hear me, Shiba Takeru? I. LOVE. YOU. Come back to me, I don't care if you hate me, just come back to me..."

Chiaki's quiet sobbing and the stray tear that landed on Takeru's face had some effect - Takeru realized he was in pain, but the Chiaki sobbing at his bedside was very real - and very much admitting to the fact that he was in love with Takeru.

"C-chiaki?" Takeru groaned, still in pain.

"Takeru!" Chiaki whispered, a note of sudden fear in his voice.

"Sorry, did I wake you? You should be resting..."

"No," Takeru whispered weakly "I've been awake... A while..."

Takeru winced as he sat up, propped up on one elbow, facing the teenager sitting crosslegged at his bedside.

"How much did you hear?" Chiaki whispered back, very much ready to bolt out of there at a second's notice.

"I heard enough to come back to you, Tani Chiaki..." Takeru replied.

"I heard enough to tell you that I don't hate you... I love you too, more than you can understand right now..."

Takeru reached up to Chiaki's tear stained face with his free hand and wiped away the tears, cupping the younger male's face.

"So don't cry..."

He leaned in to kiss Chiaki, inhaling the woodsy scent he so loved - tasting the citrus on the lips of his brown-haired angel... A kiss, chaste in it's own way, but so loving and tender that he could almost swear that he felt Chiaki's shoulders heave in relief.

"I'm still here."

* * *

**Short, fluffy. But please, do review.**


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